East Idaho biologists want wolverines to shed a bit of hair and grin for the camera in the name of science.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists in the Upper Snake River Region recently began placing 10 camera traps in the Island Park area and two elsewhere, along with scent dispensers designed to attract wolverines passing through. The main idea is to see how many of the elusive creatures frequent the region.

“They have a really wide range,” said James Brower, regional communications manager for Fish and Game. Brower helped install one of the Island Park traps. “The bottom line is that we don’t know (how many wolverines there are). That’s what this whole study is about.”

Brower said if wolverines are found in the area, the next step would be to capture and collar them to get a better idea of the animal’s distribution.

Besides taking photos, the tree-hung bait traps also have copper bristles attached below the scent traps to catch hair samples.

“So if an animal crawls up and down it snags a little bit of hair off of it,” Brower said. “Potentially we can get some DNA from that if we can get enough hair samples. We can see if they are different individuals or if they are related. It goes into a database that gives us tons of information.”

The scent used in the traps is a mixture of skunk essence, beaver castor and anise, and “some other really good smelly stuff,” he said.

The odor is dripped out of a mechanical, battery-operated dispenser intended to run all winter long.

“In the trapping world, anything that smells funky attracts all sorts of critters,” Brower said. “We have found cases where deer and elk will come to check them out. Everything that loves to eat meat will come to investigate what the heck went on over there.”

Wolverines are the largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family with males weighing up to 50 pounds and females, 26 pounds. The critter lives in high mountain regions close to the tree line where snow cover persists well into May or even June. Wolverines prefer to den in the snow.

Recent estimates peg wolverine numbers in the lower 48 states at 250 to 300. Canada is believed to have 15,000 to 20,000.

“The wolverine is basically a relic of the ice age, and it still persists where ice-age conditions persist,” said Tim Preso on his Earthjustice website. He’s an attorney for Earthjustice, which supports federal protections for wolverines. “Wolverines are extremely tough and they live in extremely harsh environments at high elevation. Mostly they’re up on those high ridges and they’re up there year-round. So when grizzly bears, which we think of as a tough animal, are sleeping in their hibernation dens for the winter, the wolverine is still out there on those snow-blasted slopes trying to eke out a living.”

One thing wolverines are renowned for is their giant home territory.

“They are heavily snow-dependent for their breeding success,” Brower said. “They have to have a whole lot of snow. They are built for wintertime. They’ve got huge pads on their feet that will allow them to really move on top of the snow. They are movers and shakers. They never stop. They are just hauling all the time. They have really wide home ranges.”

Some estimates put wolverine home ranges at 160 square miles.

Brower said Fish and Game plans to continue the study into to future.

“We may also see other critters (in the camera traps) as well,” he said. “It’s always useful information.”

The frustrated tourist stalled in the long bison jam in Yellowstone National Park is more likely to be a repeat visitor, according to a newly released survey.

That’s just one of the findings in Yellowstone’s 2018 Visitor Use Study, which also found the majority of visitors surveyed — 67 percent — were first-time visitors, and that the longer those first-time visitors stayed in the park, the more frustrated they became by perceived crowding problems.

“I’m quite surprised how well they are willing to accept crowding,” said Jeremy Sage, an economist and associate director of the University of Montana Institute for Tourism Recreation Research, a part of the research team. “As you get more and more experience with it, the newness wears off.”

New study

The National Park Service contracted Otak Inc., RRC Associates and ITRR to conduct the study to help understand how visitors experience the park in real time, across the summer season, and across different parts of the park. More than 4,000 people responded to the surveys, one of the largest in the history of the National Park Service. It was conducted during one week of each month from May through September 2018.

Overall, the picture produced was fairly rosy. Eighty-five percent of respondents thought their experience in the park was good or excellent. The top three reasons for visiting were scenery, wildlife and thermal features — all of which Yellowstone has in great variety.

“I largely credit the National Park Service team and our partners for the high visitor satisfaction levels,” said Superintendent Cam Sholly in a news release. “That said, there is no question that increasing visitation levels are having higher impacts on resources, our staff and infrastructure, and our gateway communities.”

Deal with it

Understanding tourists’ behavior and their satisfaction is important to the Park Service as visitation has steadily climbed in the past 10 years, peaking at 4.2 million in 2016. One problem the survey noted was a greater sense of crowding, traffic congestion and parking availability at Midway Geyser Basin and Fairy Falls. That’s the type of problem the agency may be able to address with new infrastructure.

The solution to such a problem may be local shuttle systems between Old Faithful to West Yellowstone, Old Faithful to the geyser basin and back, and Canyon Village to various local attractions.

“This study gives us very actionable information on how we can better manage and plan for increasing visitation in Yellowstone,” Sholly said.

Other info

It’s also worth noting that repeat visitors said in the survey they were more likely to want to experience a wild place while in Yellowstone, as opposed to visiting geysers and thermal features that were high on the list of newbies maybe making a quick trip around the Grand Loop.

As Chinese tourism has climbed, the survey also dug into their experiences, noting that they valued being around “considerate people,” wanted to feel safe, and appreciated clean restrooms more than their United States counterparts.

Chinese visitation by tour bus places an unusual demand on park resources, Sage noted, with big surges of tourists.

“Overall, 92 percent waited less than 10 minutes to enter the park and 86 percent waited less than 10 minutes to find parking,” according to a park press release. “Of the more popular sites in the park, respondents rated Old Faithful and Canyon Village the least problematic, probably due to sufficient infrastructure to support a high volume of visitors.”

On Jan. 25, four snowmobilers were riding some of the Snake River Range’s most challenging terrain northeast of Palisades Reservoir.

Recent storms had caused the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center to post the avalanche danger at “considerable.”

Three of the four riders waited at the bottom of a slope while Tommy Hawkins, of Layton, Utah (formerly of Victor), made his second attempt to climb a slope and obtain a ridge with his turbo-charged machine.

The slope failed and a large avalanche roared down, swallowing Hawkins and sliding into the other three riders. Hawkins vanished, two others were buried to their waists, and a fourth was completely buried except for one hand. The three managed to dig themselves out and hunt for Hawkins using his beacon’s signal.

As they neared the beacon’s signal, the searchers could hear Hawkins’ running snowmobile beneath the surface of the slide. They dug down and found him buried headfirst, unconscious, his head six feet below the surface. His avalanche airbag was deployed and his helmet was packed with snow. CPR was administered but Hawkins died of asphyxiation.

“The bottom line is: Never underestimate the avalanche problem,” said Lynne Wolfe, an avalanche educator and editor of a small technical paper in Jackson, Wyoming, called the Avalanche Review. “Choose terrain to match the conditions and leave yourself a good margin. If you’re not sure what’s above you then stay well out of the way.”

Wolfe, who teaches avalanche awareness courses for Exum Mountain Guides, will be one of the speakers at the Avalanche Awareness Night scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at Taylorview Middle School in Idaho Falls. She will be joined by Sarah Carpenter co-owner of the American Avalanche Institute headquartered in Jackson.

The annual Avalanche Awareness Night is organized by Lani and Wray Landon, who lost their son to an avalanche 11 seasons ago. Besides top-drawer instruction, the free program will also feature several door prizes.

With backcountry skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling popularity at an all-time high, several groups are preaching how to be safe. Last month, an avalanche awareness course aimed at snowmobilers attracted about 100 people at Rexburg Motorsports.

“A lot of people, and for good reason, won’t ride with people who haven’t taken a class,” said Matt Dyer, a manager at Rexburg Motorsports. “I want to make sure I’m riding with guys who know how to use (avalanche gear) and how to find me. If you take the wrong person who is not trained … they can become a liability.”

Summer Andersen started the Adam Andersen Avalanche Project in the winter of 2018 after her husband died in an avalanche while snowmobiling near Mount Jefferson in the Island Park region. She said the project’s main fundraising comes from an awareness night held at Action Motor Sports in Idaho Falls each fall. The project has a few goals to post signs on potential danger and offer free avalanche packs that snowmobilers can check out. With the help of others, she posted 10 signs this fall in the Palisades area at popular snowmobile entry points. Last year, she posted five signs in the Island Park area.

“I’ve been able to get about six avalanche packs for people to use for free in Island Park and Idaho Falls,” Andersen said. “This year I’m going to try to offer scholarships for people to take their avy courses. The whole idea is to promote awareness and education and make sure people know what they’re doing when they go out in the backcountry.”

Anderson said she is also pushing to get improved forecasting for areas such as Island Park which has been left out of conditions reports in the past. The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center currently posts conditions on the Centennial Range.

“It’s kind of in a dead spot,” she said. “Where Adam died is technically in the Centennials. Before he died there was no forecasting for that area. Almost a year later they opened up forecasting for the Centennials. Even now they don’t get all of it.”

Carpenter said the Avalanche Awareness Night will look at the current snowpack and how it formed, review better tools for communicating within a group, as well as communicating after something happens.

“We will present information on snowpack, weather trends and decision making,” Carpenter said. “We will also introduce or review the fundamentals of how to recognize avalanche terrain.”

Wolfe said she hopes to educate through entertaining stories.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about, researching, printing, things that have to do with decision making and human factors,” Wolfe said. “I really think that the bottom line is people think they can get away with it. This won’t happen to me. The minute you start acknowledging how this can happen to me, it happened to my neighbor, it happened in this spot, then we’d be a little bit more conservative in the places where we need to be.”

In Wyoming, a state where snowmobile avalanche deaths now outnumber all other avalanche victims, Wolfe said out-of-staters are often caught unaware.

“The locals seemed to be pretty well educated,” she said. “The visitors, at least on Togwotee (Pass), who come in from Wisconsin for a week don’t really understand the extent of the problem. It’s much more than gear. It’s understanding how to recognize good conditions and bad conditions and how to tailor your behavior appropriately.”

Carpenter said this season’s snowpack is already looking a bit suspect in the region’s mountains with areas of weak, sugary snow.

“When we finally get more snow, the set up will be like trying to build a house on a foundation of sand,” she said. “We are going to be keeping our eyes out for this weak early season snow.”

The experts said the Avalanche Awareness Night is not meant to replace hands-on courses that teach in the field. Instructors recommend learning the basics, such as using a beacon, using a probe, digging snow pits, and reading and recognizing dangerous situations.

One tool easily available to backcountry users is online avalanche forecasts. Sites such as the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center and Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center provide daily forecasts and conditions during the winter season.

Beginning Friday at midnight, the following roads on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest Westside Ranger District will be closed to wheeled motorized vehicles. The Forest Service currently manages electric bicycles (e-bikes) as motorized vehicles.

• East Fork of Mink Creek (FR001)
• South Fork of Mink Creek (FR 163)
• Pebble Creek (FR 036)
• Inman (FR 018)
• Toponce (FR 375)

The city of Pocatello also announced this week it will be closing the City Creek Road and Cusick Creek Road gates to motorized access starting Saturday.

“These annual closures help us protect resources and roads as constantly changing weather conditions increase erosion concerns,” said Seth Schuab, recreation management specialist.

The public is still welcome to access the areas but may have to change their mode of travel.

“We typically open areas back up around May 15 depending on snowpack,” Schaub said.

The district also reminds campers and outdoor enthusiasts that the following campgrounds and group areas are closed for the season.

• Scout Mountain Campground
• Big Springs Campground
• Malad Summit Campground
• Curlew Campground
• Mink Creek Group Area
• Third Creek Group Areas

For additional information on area campgrounds or to make campground reservations for the 2020 camping season visit Recreation.gov or call 1-888-448-1474, TDD 1-877-833-6777. For more information on gate closures, contact the Westside District Office at 4350 Cliffs Drive in Pocatello or call 208-236-7500. District office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed on Federal holidays.

POCATELLO — Kris Millgate, renowned award-winning outdoor journalist, author and founder of Tight Line Media in East Idaho, will be the featured presenter at Southeast Idaho Fly Fisher’s November meeting. The public is invited to attend this free presentation on Thursday at Goody’s Deli, 905 S. Fifth Ave. in Pocatello. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.

Millgate will be sharing her fantastic “fish stories” and showing fishy footage that evening, including her newest short video, “Together,” about the restoration of Tincup Creek in Southeast Idaho. In addition, Millgate will be selling copies of her new and well-received book, “My Place Among Men.”

Besides being an avid outdoorswoman and fly fisher, Millgate is a leading member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, a life member of Trout Unlimited, and a certified Idaho Master Naturalist. She’s currently reporting for PBS, USA Today, Gray’s Sporting Journal and East Idaho Outdoors. Her work can be seen at tightlinemedia.com.

Whether you love stories about fishing or conservation, here is a chance to hear both from one of Idaho’s talented story tellers. It’s also a chance to meet and mingle with members of the Southeast Idaho Fly Fishers who have been involved in countless habitat and fish conservation projects in Southeast Idaho since 1972.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and here is something to be thankful for: fall fishing! Personnel from Idaho Fish and Game’s hatcheries in the Southeast Region will be releasing over 41,000 catchable-sized rainbow trout at various locations during November. 

The number of trout actually released may be altered by weather, water conditions, equipment problems or schedule changes. If delays occur, trout will be stocked when conditions become favorable.

Here are the fish being stocked this month in the region:

• Crystal Springs Pond: Nov. 4-8 (500 fish)
• McTucker Pond #8: Nov. 4-8 (750 fish)
• Snake River at Tilden, Blackfoot, Firth and Shelley: Nov. 4-8 (39,950 fish)
• Crystal Springs Pond: Nov. 18-22 (500 fish)

For those who like to tromp around in the outdoors to find their Christmas tree, public land managers have a deal for you.

Permits to cut Christmas trees on national forest or Bureau of Land Management land in East Idaho will cost $15. Only one tree is allowed per family.

Permits on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest can be obtained at ranger district offices or at several vendors in East Idaho. They are available now.

In Pocatello, you can get a permit at the Westside Ranger District at 4350 S. Cliffs Drive or at C-A-L Ranch, 4115 Yellowstone Ave. A full list of vendors can be found at tinyurl.com/pr-tree-cutting.

“We sell between 8,000 and 9,000 Christmas tree tags per year,” said Sarah Wheeler, a spokesman for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. “Last year we sold 8,791.”

Households that purchase a Christmas tree permit are encouraged to harvest their trees as soon as possible due to weather conditions, Wheeler said in a news release. “Mountain snowstorms and subsequent road conditions can limit access to cutting areas.”

Both the BLM and Forest Service remind tree cutters that all motorized travel restrictions are still in effect and will be enforced. Both groups offer helpful maps on where to go and where not to go to find a Christmas tree.

“Montpelier and Palisades Ranger Districts are the most popular areas for Christmas tree cutting,” Wheeler said.

“Be safe and prepared,” the BLM advises in its tree permit information. “Check road and weather conditions before heading out. Make sure you have everything you need for an outdoor venture including warm clothes, food, water and safety equipment. Let someone know where you’ll be going and when you plan to return. If you get stranded, call for help, and stay with your group and vehicle until help arrives.”

The Caribou-Targhee National Forest is offering one free Christmas tree cutting permit to fourth-graders who have an Every Kid Outdoors pass. The permits must be picked up by fourth-graders at Forest Service offices and are not available from vendors.

“The fourth-grader must be present at the time the permit is issued and must be picked up prior to cutting your tree,” the forest service said.

Wheeler said, last year, 54 fourth-graders took advantage of the Every Kid Outdoors pass to get a free Christmas tree cutting permit. She said the Caribou-Targhee office typically issued about 1,000 Every Kid Outdoors passes.

Every Kid Outdoors passes can be found at everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm. With the pass, fourth-graders and their families can have free entry to more than 2,000 federally managed lands and waters for an entire year starting Sept. 1.